The following thesis incorporated and developed a unified framework based on the theories of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon to amplify existing scholarship’s narratives and offer a new perspective...Show moreThe following thesis incorporated and developed a unified framework based on the theories of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon to amplify existing scholarship’s narratives and offer a new perspective and method of assessing the historical experience of urban spaces, with the primary case study of Seneca Village. The identified crossovers between Lefebvre’s theory of “Production of Space” and Frantz Fanon’s theory of “Decolonization”, formed the backbone of the unified framework, which was applied to a series of publicly available, digitalised primary sources from municipal archives of New York City. The topographical maps, population census, report, newspapers, and political posters analysed through the unified framework have provided several conclusions. Firstly, the historical experience of Seneca strongly coincides with the physical and representational violence in the form of the material destruction of the village and inducing social barriers to isolate the African American community of Seneca Village from the general social fabric of the city. Secondly, the power specialisation within Seneca falls in between the dwellers of the village and the Board of Commissioners for Central Park. Through the legitimization of authority, the Board of Commissioners have expanded their overarching control of the space of the village and subjected it to manipulations beneficial to the board itself. Hence, it formed a one-sided power dynamic at the expense of the village’s dwellers. Thirdly, the paradoxical conundrum was identified where authority, granting freedom through the 1799 Gradual Slavery Abolishment Act, continued to establish discriminatory practices against the Seneca’s dwellers through manipulation and redefinition of the space; developing further injustice in the matter. In conclusion, the application of the unified framework in supplement to existing scholarship has put forward a new, theoretical perspective on re-assessing the historical experience of Seneca Village.Show less
